


Butterfly Bush

by enmity



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of the Abyss
Genre: 3rd Person Omniscient, F/F, Gen, Tokunaga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-14 21:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15398211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: “Nothing gets past me. You wanted to touch it, right? Back at Mount Roneal, I mean,” and Anise jiggled Tokunaga’s endearingly stubby limbs to signal what she’d meant byit. “If you wanted to, you could’ve just said pretty please. Oh, but, I suppose that would’ve been too much on your serious, coldhearted image. Right?”





	Butterfly Bush

**Author's Note:**

> Tfw you post something because of the wordcount
> 
> Anyway, based on that little scene in Mt. Roneal ^^ Also I saw someone say about how neither Tear nor Anise are really given a chance to act their ages and it shows - couldn't really address it much in this though, but it did make me want to write something about them, haha.

Anise waited until the day neared its end and they were close to an inn before she reached up on her tiptoes and tugged at Tear’s arm. The older girl turned around, leaning down and leveling Anise – she’d guessed; only Anise would opt for such a forward addressing – with a neutral look. “Is something the matter?”

“Not so loud,” returned Anise, her voice low, and cupped her hand beside her mouth with a conspiring wink that signaled trouble or, at the very least, mild exasperation. Tear considered for a moment. The rest of the group remained unaware of their conversation, walking a small but manageable distance ahead. And… she’d been exposed secondhand to the nightmarish extent of which Anise’s persistence was willing to go. So Tear humored her, listening in. “Nothing gets past me. You wanted to touch it, right? Back at Mount Roneal, I mean,” and she jiggled Tokunaga’s endearingly stubby limbs to signal what she’d meant by _it_. “If you wanted to, you could’ve just said pretty please. Oh, but, I suppose that would’ve been too much on your serious, coldhearted image. Right?”

“Oh…” It could’ve been the warning signs to a case of frostbite, but nevertheless Tear couldn’t help the color rising to her cheeks as if on cue. The fact that Anise picked up on it immediately and with visible delight made it worse; in the back of her mind Tear recognized the girl’s erratic moods and devilish sense of humor as belonging to the same protective role that Tear’s own stoic, no-nonsense severity served, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. She covered her mouth to no avail in stopping what she blurted out next: “R-Really? I can?”

“When we get to the inn, I’ll make Tokunaga go big like I do when it fights, and then you can hug it all you want. But you’ll have to wait until the others fall asleep.” Then Anise let out a soft giggle, glancing away. “Heh. Don’t worry, I swear on my last piece of candy that I won’t tell anyone. Has anyone told you how funny you look when you’re embarrassed, Tear?”

“F-Funny, huh.” Tear wanted to sigh. Vaguely she remembered that in all her days of training, she had never seen the Major flustered for a day in her life. She’d been taught to hide and throw knives with lethal precision and survive her way through the harshest of battlefields, but there’d been no template to follow when it came to navigating the awkward perils of facial expressions.

“Hmm.” Anise’s eyes narrowed. “Now I can see why Luke likes you.”

“That’s— We’re not…” she started, but faltered when she saw how evident the mirth in Anise’s eyes were. It wasn’t worth pursuing.

“You’re proving my point,” Anise said, with a gleeful laugh that sounded more self-satisfied than anything else, but everyone had learned by now not to question her.

Later that night, an hour after the others had drifted off, Anise watched as Tear snuggled up to the stuffed doll and wrapped her arms around it in an embrace. The older girl certainly seemed to enjoy herself, especially for the lack of eyewitnesses. Anise struggled not to laugh; instead she kicked her legs forward and cradled her chin in her hands.

Tear pulled away from it, her face warm. Her mouth wavered, despite her attempts, into a smile. “Your Tokunaga is certainly… well-loved. It’s very… soft…”

“Of course,” Anise said, pleased, and snuck the now normal-sized doll into a drawer for safekeeping, shoving it away along with a remark about _prettiness_ and how she honestly wouldn’t mind if Tear borrowed Tokunaga for a moment longer, if only so Anise could see her making that lovely, indulgent smile of hers again.

And how, in truth, she’d stopped seeing Tear as a rival to Luke’s fortunes for a long time now.

Instead she reached to turn off the light on the bedside stand, and tucked herself into bed next to Tear.


End file.
